Tag: UVA

As I reflect on the University of Virginia’s memorial service honoring the victims of the November 13 shooting, it is a struggle to put my thoughts into words.

I could mention the names of those who spoke, like UVA President Jim Ryan, Athletic Director Carla Williams, or the large number of students who knew the three young men who were killed. I could tell you what they said about Devin Chandler, D’Sean Perry, and Lavel Davis Jr, the stories they told. I could reflect on the many tears that were shed. But all of this would fail to fully illustrate the pain and suffering present in John Paul Jones Arena on a cold November afternoon.

Words fail to express the utter horror I felt while watching the victims’ families walk slowly from the stage to their seats. No words can convey their suffering, yet it reverberated around the arena—and made the space feel like the smallest, most intimate room. 

Williams admired Chandler’s penchant for dancing—his close relatives fondly referred to him as “Devin the Dancing Machine.” She spoke of Davis’ extreme enjoyment of the 18 scrambled eggs his grandmother made him every time he came home. She recounted that a young Perry insisted on dressing as a red Power Ranger for Halloween, and that he refused to take the costume off until Thanksgiving. 

Her stories gave every person who did not know these three young men a hint of the lives they led—and it was devastating. 

She ended her speech with a promise to their families: “We love your sons, and we will make sure their legacy never fades at the University of Virginia.”

The speeches were interspersed with musical selections by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Choir and gospel singer Cece Winans, as well as videos showing pictures of the trio, narrated by teammates and past coaches. 

The most gut-wrenching speeches were delivered by the slain players’ football teammates. Second-year student Cody Brown spoke about a funny, confident, and kind Chandler whose “smile alone was enough to brighten anyone’s day.” He uttered a tearful goodbye to his fallen friend. “We love you so much, and know you’re smiling down on us in Heaven.”

Third-year student Jared Rayman painted a portrait of Davis as a “natural-born leader” who perfectly modeled the phrase, “lead by example.” 

“Each tear I shed for you, ‘Vel, holds immeasurable love,” said Rayman. “The only thing that lessens my grief is the memory of your infectious smile.”

First-year student Matt Bettridge admired Perry for many years at their Miami high school, viewing him as a mentor and role model. Reading a letter he wrote to his beloved friend, he said, “Your presence was felt each and every day that I was able to step on the field and share it with you.”

Bettridge urged those attending the memorial service to “fight for what you want, and fight for the people you love the most. D’Sean was the best fighter I knew—and always pushed himself to be the best person on and off the field.” 

Though these speeches could not begin to encompass the richness of the lives of the three men, they offered a glimpse of the smiling, energetic, and kind individuals they were. And for that, I will forever be grateful to their teammates who shared these stories in the midst of their deep, intense grief. 

UVA football coach Tony Elliott closed out the service by reading a Bible passage, wishing peace to those affected by the tragedy. He also reflected on his time with the three men, pointing to a moment Davis took him by the shoulder during a practice to tell him something important: “Coach, I’m starting to understand it. It’s the little things that matter.” 

Elliott praised how Chandler brought joy to everyone around him.“You felt and heard Devin before you ever saw him,” he said. The coach also spoke of Perry—who “on the inside [was] intricately woven together with life, beauty, and love”—with much reverence.

As everyone filed out of the arena in near-complete silence, I was thankful for all that I had learned about the young men, and overwhelmed by the enormity of the loss. Though the feelings in that arena were almost too much to bear, I hope it will give the families and friends of Perry, Chandler, and Davis one simple assurance: We will remember them. 

GoFundMe fundraisers have been set up for Davis, Chandler, Perry, and Morgan.

Two dozen student veterans came together November 11 at Newcomb Hall to celebrate Veterans Day and share the struggles they’ve faced transitioning from military to student life—as well as the advantages being a veteran has afforded them. UVA President Jim Ryan, along with other university officials, also attended the event, hosted by the Student Veterans of America.

Student veterans detailed the struggles they faced adjusting to UVA. Alex, a second-year statistics major, shared that he had difficulty adapting to the amount of downtime he now has as a student, and learning to manage his own time and commitments. 

However, many veterans praised UVA for offering them opportunities they may not have had elsewhere. As a first-year computer science major with a young daughter, Dalton expressed gratitude for being afforded early enrollment and graduate housing for his family. He felt that these advantages helped him better navigate the university as an unconventional student: “I felt the UVA hand reach out,” he said.

Halfway through the event, Ryan arrived to give the Veteran Student Center a check for $25,900 “due to the generosity of others,” he said, detailing the ways in which he wants to “make UVA synonymous with service.” He expressed admiration for those who have served in the military, and said he felt honored to be in the presence of student veterans, particularly on Veterans Day. UVA officials in attendance—many of whom were veterans themselves and work closely with student veterans—also shared stories about their time in the military.

Though the students discussed their gratitude for the Veteran Student Center, some said they often faced additional stress because of the lack of representation in the upper echelons of UVA administration. Brett Schriever, a third-year aerospace engineering major, detailed his struggles getting help from the university when he faced complications with his GI Bill benefits. In the end, Schriever—who spent two years on active duty, and is now in his eighth year in the Army Reserves—said he had to ask another student veteran for advice. 

Marine Corps veteran and first-year student Romeo Sarmiento, treasurer of UVA’s Student Veterans chapter, expressed similar concerns. Sarmiento, who spent seven years as an infantry assaultman, articulated his disappointment that there is still no veteran representation among the university’s faculty, and that there are no faculty advisors to help veterans with all the aspects of their transition into university life. 

Sarmiento also explained the ways in which his time in the military affected his career path—he plans to apply to the McIntire School of Commerce, and eventually become a lawyer to serve his country in a new way. “Service doesn’t end,” he said.

Concluding the event, Sarmiento expressed hope that the Veteran Student Center will be able to organize more events in the future incorporating the general student body. There is an “important opportunity for exchange,” he said.

Three students were killed, two injured, and a community was left traumatized on November 13, following a shooting at the University of Virginia.

The first message from the UVA Alert system notified the community of shots fired at Culbreth garage. It was followed seven minutes later by a report of a shooting on Culbreth Road. The third message urged students to “RUN. HIDE. FIGHT.”

Students were advised to shelter in place as an active search persisted from 10:39pm on the 13th to 10:35 the following morning. The alert system sent a total of 57 messages during this period. Group chats were flooded with notes of love and support, and urged students to check in with friends and family. Students organized Zoom calls so they could be with one another, rather than alone and afraid. 

Five-hundred students spent the night in UVA buildings, including libraries and recreational facilities. Isabella Sheridan, a third-year and director of a performing arts program for first-years, sat with underclassmen as they sheltered in place at the Student Activities Building.

“It was a really long night. People were really tense and pretty much everyone was terrified when we heard the car was going down Jefferson Park Avenue because we were right over there,” Sheridan said.

First-year students remained locked down in dorms. Resident advisors told students to lock their doors and close their blinds. From the first-year Balz-Dobie dormitory, Esme Merrill reported that “the situation in the dorm is a really dark one. I just am so uncertain about what my next hour is going to look like, let alone what my college experience is going to be after the tragedy.” 

The messages from the UVA Alert system persisted, repeating that the suspect was at large and armed. He was described as a Black man wearing a burgundy jacket or hoodie, blue jeans, and red shoes. At around midnight, the local police scanner reported that, based on social media posts, the suspect seemed to be in GrandMarc, a residential apartment near Grounds. 

Emma Troischt, a third-year, lives on the fifth floor of GrandMarc. When she heard the news, she barricaded her door and locked herself in the bathroom of her studio unit. “Occasionally, I could hear footsteps outside in the hallway. It was terrifying not knowing if it was the police keeping us safe or him,” she said. 

At 1:20am, UVA Alerts officially named the suspect as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. 

“This is a message any leader hopes never to have to send, and I am devastated that this violence has visited the University of Virginia,” UVA President Jim Ryan wrote in an email that went out at 4:27am. During a press conference later in the morning, Ryan fought back tears as he spoke of the “unimaginably sad day for our community.” 

The three students whose lives were stolen are Devin Chandler of Huntersville, North Carolina; Lavel Davis of Dorchester, South Carolina; and D’Sean Perry of Miami, Florida. Two of the slain victims were found inside the charter bus they had taken back from Washington, D.C., where they had been on a field trip to see a play. 

Two other students are hospitalized, one in critical condition and the other in good condition. 

Jones was arrested on three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, and was taken into custody in Henrico County, about 80 miles southeast of Charlottesville.

At the press conference, UVA police chief Tim Longo reported that Jones had come to the attention of the university’s threat assessment team in the fall of 2022. He had made a comment about possessing a gun to a third party, but the comment was not made in conjunction with any threats. Jones was also connected to a hazing situation, though Longo had limited information about that investigation.

A Richmond Times-Dispatch article noted that Jones’ parents divorced when he was 5 years old, and Jones described his father’s departure as “one of the most traumatic things that ever happened to me.”

Following the divorce, Jones got into fights with other students and suffered disciplinary action as a result. He had a successful high school career, and Petersburg chose him as the top male student-athlete for an annual scholarship program. Little is known about Jones’ history on the UVA football team and his relationships with the players. 

“The search for the suspect may be over, but the work of understanding this terrible crime and what motivated him to commit it is just beginning,” Ryan said in an email.

Gun violence on college campuses

The shooting at UVA was at least the fifth since February on or near campuses in Virginia, according to reporting from The New York Times. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 38,000 gun violence deaths since 2013.

College-aged students have been habituated to fear shootings on their campuses—places meant to be havens of learning and growth. A generation has been shaped by the tragedies at Sandy Hook Elementary, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and Virginia Tech. Many of the students who endured those shootings emerged as soldiers in a war that they never sought to fight.

Jackson Mittleman, a senior at Georgetown University, launched a gun violence prevention group when he was just 11 years old, after experiencing “the worst day of [my] life,” at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 

In 2018, he spoke at the March for Our Lives Rally, organized in response to what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. “The Sandy Hook shooting should have been the last shooting in our nation but there have been more and more every day,” he said. 

Today, many shootings later, Mittleman has advice for UVA students: “First of all, keep an eye on yourself,” he says. “Make sure that you feel comfortable putting yourself in a position where you have to engage with this sensitive and difficult situation of gun violence, especially given that you’ve experienced it so recently.”

Mittleman believes the way to avoid the normalization of such a tragedy is to talk about it. “You have to continue to highlight the impact that this has had on your life. You are now one of thousands of communities, schools, and groups that have experienced gun violence.”

Mittleman shared that there are many communities and groups that students can join if they feel compelled to take a stand. “Keep being loud,” he says. 

Samantha Fuentes is an artist, songwriter, and survivor of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Fuentes became an advocate for gun violence prevention after suffering multiple injuries by a fellow student who killed 17 and injured 17 with an AR-15.

Fuentes believes the most productive immediate action for the UVA community to pursue is “togetherness. … Everyone is grief and trauma-stricken. At these times people want to self-isolate, but the act of being together is very important.”

In the days following the shooting, Parkland students organized a town hall and invited community members and local political leadership to get together to address what they had just endured. “Find the time and space to be with one another and think about what healing looks like and what resources are needed,” Fuentes advises.

Colin Goddard—a survivor who was shot four times in the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007—echoes Fuentes’ and Mittleman’s calls for unity. “It’s more important that students talk, not necessarily to experts, but it’s the talking that is what’s important,” Goddard says. 

According to Goddard, faculty members don’t need to be psychological advisors, but they should allow students to talk freely when back in their classrooms. Once discharged from the hospital, Goddard recovered in the community at Virginia Tech. “It was super helpful to be there instead of being away,” he says. “Be in the community now.” 

After recovering from his wounds and getting his degree, Goddard volunteered for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and eventually exposed the shortcomings of gun legislation in the film Living for 32. 

“People have to be active participants in honoring the lives and legacies of those who were impacted,” he says. “People have to work in any way that they can to make sure that some good comes from it in some way.” 

Goddard has persisted in his advocacy, and is reminded of the pain he and others experienced at Virginia Tech 15 years ago. “Right now, it’s important for the UVA community to come together, and to invite those from outside the university to join them, too. Virginia Tech greatly benefited from the community with the University of Virginia following the tragedy they suffered.”

On the same day as tragedy struck the University of Virginia, a memorial was opened to commemorate the 20 children and six adults lost in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary almost 10 years ago.  

One day later, on the evening of November 14, students gathered on the university’s South Lawn. They held candles up in remembrance of the classmates they lost just hours ago. In the coming days, they will mourn and remember together. 

Remembering those who were lost 

D’Sean Perry was a junior reserve linebacker from Florida who appeared in six of the UVA football team’s 10 games. “D’Sean was an amazing soul that made his family and community proud,” said Earl Sims, the head football coach at Gulliver Preparatory School. Charles Snowden, UVA football alum and Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker, posted a tribute to Perry on Instagram: “D’Sean is the human embodiment of resilience and perseverance and I couldn’t be more proud of him. I really did try to pass down everything I’d learned because I knew he could be much better than I ever could.” Perry’s parents have decided not to speak publicly about the incident, “as their grief is only beginning, and out of respect for the University of Virginia community [which] has been terrorized by another mass shooting in the United States.” 

Lavel Davis Jr., a junior from South Carolina, was a starting wide receiver and the third-leading pass receiver on the team this season; he caught two touchdowns. Davis was also a member of the Groundskeepers, a group of Virginia football players that pushes for social change. “He never bothered a soul,” Kim Richardson, Davis’ aunt, said. “He just wanted everyone happy.” Jack Hamilton, one of Davis’ UVA professors, shared in a Twitter post: “One thing that struck me about Vel was how much his classmates liked him and vice versa. … In my experience, star athletes tend to hang out with other athletes, but Vel seemed to go out of his way to make friends with non-athletes.” 

Devin Chandler transferred to Virginia from the University of Wisconsin, and had yet to play in a UVA football game. “He was so full of life. He was a great kid,” Alvis Whitted, a coach at Wisconsin, said. Hamilton, who also taught Chandler, called him “an unbelievably nice person, always a huge smile, really gregarious and funny. One of those people who’s just impossible not to like.” Wisconsin’s Defensive Coordinator Jim Leonhard said Chandler “had a lasting impact on his teammates, even after he left UW, which is a testament to the type of person he was.”

“I cannot find the words to express the devastation and heartache that our team is feeling today after the tragic events last night that resulted in the deaths of Lavel, D’Sean and Devin, and the others who were injured,” said UVA football coach Tony Elliott. “These were incredible young men with huge aspirations and extremely bright futures. Our hearts ache for their families, their classmates, and their friends. These precious young men were called away too soon. We are all fortunate to have them be a part of our lives. They touched us, inspired us, and worked incredibly hard as representatives of our program, university, and community. Rest in peace, young men.”

By Lauren Dalban and Brielle Entzminger

A string of racist crimes at the University of Virginia this fall has sparked fear among Black students, and sowed further distrust between the student body and UVA administration. 

It started on September 7, when someone placed a noose—a weapon used to lynch Black people for centuries—around the neck of the Homer statue on Central Grounds. The next day, the University Police Department classified the incident as a hate crime due to the noose’s history as a violent white supremacist symbol, and, the following day, released security footage images of the suspect.

On October 25, the UPD announced that law enforcement had charged and arrested Shane Dennis, an Albemarle County resident, in connection with the hate crime. The Albemarle County Police Department arrested Dennis—who was charged with violating a state code that prohibits displaying a noose “on the property of another [or] other public place with intent to intimidate”—on October 24. The UPD also served Dennis, who has no known prior relationship with the university, a No Trespass Order, prohibiting him from entering UVA Grounds in the future. He is currently being held without bond at Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail.

Police also suspect Dennis is responsible for leaving two masks, a “civil peace flag,” a Christian cross, and a sealed envelope containing a letter near the Homer statue on October 22. According to The Cavalier Daily, the letter claimed the statue “glorifies pedophilia.”

“We are all so blinded by hatred and racial division [that we] refuse to see the truth that is hidden in plain sight,” read the letter, which did not contain any racial or religious references. “If you live in reality you will see an old man with a nude adolescent boy in between his legs.”

On October 14, the UPD received a report that the n-word and another version of the slur had been spray painted across a sidewalk at 14th Street NW and John Street. The Charlottesville Police Department and UPD are both investigating the incident. 

Because no federal statutes exclusively categorize hate speech as a hate crime, police have not classified the graffiti incident as a hate crime.

In the weeks following the discovery of the noose, student groups learned that the crime’s perpetrator, who appeared to be a white male, left documents at the foot of the Homer statue. Last month, UPD confirmed that the perpetrator had left items behind at the Homer statue, but provided no further details. In response, The Cavalier Daily published an open letter signed by “Black UVA” on September 17, calling the administration’s silence an “explicit [act] of collusion against the safety and well-being of Black students,” and listing a string of demands, including “full transparency regarding the letters released in connection with the noose” and “a significant financial contribution from [President Jim] Ryan’s Virginia Fund … to help remedy the emotional toll that campus racism has on the Black students.”

On September 22, UVA Executive Vice President Jennifer Wagner and UPD Chief Tim Longo sent an email revealing that one of the documents left at the statue contained the words “TICK TOCK.” Wagner and Longo claimed that releasing this information earlier would have compromised “the integrity of the investigation,” but assured the community that “nothing recovered at the scene conveys a specific threat to public safety.”  

“Being able to denounce things—like [the Office of African American Affairs] being vandalized—early and consistently and urgently are important because I think when we let those things go without commenting on them as a university that it emboldens people to continue these acts,” said Ceci Cain, a UVA fourth-year, and a member of the University Student Council and of the Young Democratic Socialists of America. 

Two other incidents, initially suspected to be racially motivated crimes, also occurred at UVA this fall. In September, a flag depicting an owl and a check for $888.88, which community members feared represented a white supremacist organization, were left at the school’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers—however, the UPD and FBI determined the items had been left by a UVA alumnus as a philanthropic act. And in August, someone threw rocks through one of the OAAA’s windows, but the perpetrator, who has been charged with vandalism, was determined by UVA to be “a student … who was motivated by factors unrelated to racial bias.” 

Still, some students continue to lack faith in UVA’s responses to acts of racism. A student who saw the racist graffiti earlier this month, before it was reported to police, “alerted his peers to avoid involving the police,” reports The Daily Progress.

“When we see increased policing, we not only see heightened fear and anxiety and interactions of police with Black students, but also with community members,” Cain says. “I think those things are really concerning.”

As soon as I sat down with Eva Surovell at Grit Coffee, I realized that I had no questions prepared. Normally, for me at least, this would be a terrible start to an interview. But as we were placing our orders, the editor-in-chief of The Cavalier Daily revealed herself to be so personable and eager to speak that I thought this meeting could simply be a conversation between two editors, a chance to talk shop—to just chat.

“I tell people I run the biggest gossip chain on Grounds,” Surovell said proudly. And what gossip she has! I asked to meet her for coffee the day she published her article on Bert Ellis Jr.’s role in inviting a prominent eugenics advocate, William Shockley, to speak at UVA in the 1970s. Ellis, one of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s recent appointees to the university’s Board of Visitors, was already a controversial figure, but this stunning and well-researched story utilized the power of UVA’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library to shine a light on his divisive actions from nearly 50 years ago.

I was curious to know how she did it—how she was tipped off to this story and how she got ahold of people who hadn’t spoken to The Cavalier Daily in decades. But I also wanted to know more about her job, especially as I’m still fresh in my role as editor-in-chief at C-VILLE.

“I like to say that I failed upwards at Cav Daily,” she said. “I quite literally got both of my jobs, news editor and managing editor, because someone else stepped down, not because I ran for them and won them. Editor-in-chief was the first Cav Daily election that I ever won, which is really weird.”

Maybe that’s a humblebrag—Surovell, a double major in English and French, clearly worked hard to be where she is now, and her appointments to each position show that her colleagues trusted her to do the work. She said she came to UVA with a plan: work at the student newspaper, join a sorority, and run for student council. But The Cavalier Daily was the only thing that stuck, and she’s poured her life into it.

“I just wanted to write,” she said. “That’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. Journalism seemed like a fun way of doing it.”

Transitioning from her first role as a sports reporter up the editing ladder came naturally, she said. But the personal sacrifices she’s had to make to fit everything together has left her unsure if she’d serve as an editor-in-chief at another paper. Because of the workload, she can’t take a full slate of classes. And when the buck stops at the top, there’s no one else to rely on when she can’t do something herself.

“The transition from writing to editing wasn’t as hard as the transition from editing to managing,”  Surovell said. “Managing is hard. I like to write, and I don’t get to do that much of it.”

But, sometimes, she does. The Ellis story started with a message from the Cav Daily’s anonymous tip line before the semester started. Surovell was at home in northern Virginia at the time, and figured she would look into it when she was back on Grounds and could sift through the archives. But curiosity gnawed away at her.

While she was watching a Jane Austen movie with her mother, she Googled “Shockley Bert Ellis controversy.” (“I am notoriously a terrible movie-watcher,” she said. “I cannot pay attention. I’m always on my laptop or doing something else.”) The first hit was a class taught by Claudrena N. Harold, titled Black Fire: The Struggle For Social Justice and Racial Equality at the University of Virginia, 1960-1995. There, on the course website, was a PDF of The Cavalier Daily from 1974 with the headline, “BSA Will Ask Union to Cancel Debate.”

“I clicked on it and my jaw just dropped,” said Surovell. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s real.’”

The next morning, Surovell drove back to UVA and headed into the archives to take photos, documenting the back-and-forth between a young Ellis—then the tri-chairman and spokesman for the now-defunct student-run University Union—and other organizations like the Black Student Alliance. For Surovell, who’s always been fascinated by UVA’s 1970s history, the conflict both fit with her conception of what the university was like at the time, and stood out as a significant event she had never heard of before.

Surovell made a list of every person mentioned in the coverage who she could find, and set about trying to contact them.

“It proved extremely difficult, ’cause some people have passed away, most of the women had changed their names,” she said. And on a personal note, “a lot of these people were figures that were very iconic in UVA history, in 1970s history, and I was intimidated about reaching out to them.”

Many of the sources she contacted didn’t even know that Ellis was on the Board of Visitors.

Naturally, next came writing the story. Surovell writes on the floor (“I’m a floor girl”). But what comes after that? “Well,” she said, “I had to email Bert and Youngkin.”

They never responded. But the wait to hear back from them left Surovell nervous. She had just moved onto the Lawn, and her name was on her door. Considering that Ellis had already gone to a Lawn student’s door to cut down a sign with a razor blade, she was concerned that there would be personal backlash from him.

“I knew that he was on Grounds too, ’cause I had met him,” she said. “I met him probably two days before this article came out.” By chance, Surovell and Ellis had crossed paths at Grit Coffee while he was in town for a BOV meeting. “I was sitting there quite literally working on the article about him and he was sitting like 10 feet away from me.”

One of Surovell’s quirks as a writer is that she has a three-song playlist she listens to before publishing a stressful article—when we spoke, the last time she played it was before posting the Ellis story. “I played it like four times, and then I went on an anxiety run,” she said. “And then I played it again, and then I published it.” 

The Cavalier Daily and Surovell received glowing praise for the article, with professors and other professional journalists reaching out to compliment the work. In particular, staff from UVA Library’s Special Collections were pleased that their resources were used in such an extensive way.

“It’s just information that needs to be out there,” Surovell said about the “disappointing, not surprising” news on Ellis. “I’m glad that it’s out there—there’s work left to be done, for sure.”

Read the August 18, 2022, article “Ellis at center of controversy over eugenicist speaker while at U.Va., archives show” by Eva Surovell at cavalierdaily.com.

By Jack Keaveny

Every new season offers a clean slate—and the opportunity to dream big. The UVA football faithful are dreaming especially big this year, with the arrival of new head coach Tony Elliott. Leaving last season’s disappointing 6-6 record behind them, the Cavaliers and their fans are optimistic about Elliott, who plans to bring a newfound level of achievement and excellence to the UVA gridiron.

Elliott began his football career in 1999 as a walk-on wide receiver at Clemson University, earning first-team All-ACC academic honors. He left an engineering career in 2006 to become a football coach at South Carolina State, and then spent three seasons at Furman University before returning to Clemson in 2011. There, he worked his way up the coaching ranks to become the team’s assistant head coach and offensive coordinator, helping lead the Tigers to two national championships in 2016 and 2018.

Along with his leadership and championship experience, Elliott brings a new offensive coordinator, Desmond Kitchings, as well as defensive coordinator John Rudzinksi to UVA’s football staff. The Cav’s offense, led by star quarterback Brennan Armstrong, looks to continue the success it found last season, when it finished third in the country in total yards per game and 21st in points per game. The big question for this team remains the defense, which allowed 31.8 points per game last year.

Undaunted by a challenge, Elliott, who overcame a difficult childhood, including family separation, the death of his mother in a car accident when he was 9, and time without a permanent home, names faith and sports as two grounding forces in his life. He spoke to C-VILLE via Zoom about why Virginia’s a good fit for him, how to create a winning football environment, and the joys of getting dirty on a four-wheeler.

C-VILLE Weekly: With your experience as both an assistant coach and offensive coordinator at Clemson, it’s no surprise that you garnered interest from other schools. Why did you feel that Virginia was the best fit for you?

Tony Elliott: I felt Virginia was the best fit because it matched the profile that I set forth, about three or four years before, of the school that I would want to transition to. It started with high academics, and that was important because at the end of the day, education is the most important thing.

Football is prevalent in a guy’s life at this point, but long-term, education is the key, and to have an institution like Virginia and the brand recognition from an academic standpoint, and just the overall quality of the educational experience that you receive here was important for me. 

An opportunity to build something the way that I wanted to build it and not necessarily have to be influenced by a bunch of external forces. The opportunity to play in a competitive conference that sets you up to have a chance to compete on a national level. Those were the big things, and the thing that sealed the deal was just the relationship that I was able to establish, as quickly as I was, with [UVA Athletic Director] Carla [Williams]. When you go through the interview process, it’s very difficult to kind of foster a relationship, but there was an instant connection between Carla and myself. 

Coming from Clemson, coaching under Dabo Swinney, what did you learn from him in regards to building a strong team culture and creating a winning environment?

You have to be very intentional in what you’re doing and you have to put actions behind your words. It can’t just be bulletin-board material, it can’t just be pictures on the wall, you gotta be able to feel the message, see the message whenever you step into that environment, and ultimately, your culture that you create is what’s either going to take you to the top, or it’s gonna hinder you from going forward. Everybody wants to win games, but sometimes wins can be a false indicator of what the true climate is within your locker room and within your program. The key is just to focus on making sure you have a solid foundation based off the right things and build from there.

Clemson has consistently had highly ranked recruiting classes over the past decade. What did you learn from your time there about the recruiting process, and how do you plan to apply that knowledge at UVA?

I think that UVA’s recruiting is a little bit different than Clemson’s, just because of the academic profile. Clemson—that’s where I got my degree, and it’s a great institution—but at Virginia, I think there’s some different parameters that you have to make sure you evaluate to be successful because things are structured a little different here. 

To start, you gotta make sure that they fit the profile—and what Coach Swinney was able to do at Clemson was pretty remarkable, he was actually able to change that profile to where you wanna be more selective in the guys and pay attention to the whole person, not just the athletic pieces, so that’s what I take away and I think that fits here at UVA. 

Also, making sure you recruit locally. The more times guys can be on campus—as we say “on Grounds” here at UVA—the more invested they’re going to be, and what you’re looking for is high character, high academic guys, that are good football players, but more importantly, they love to play football and they’re invested.  

I think if you get that, the rankings will take care of themselves because the culture and the guys that you do recruit are gonna recruit for you in the future and continue to allow you to sustain the high rankings that Clemson has had. 

UVA has had a difficult time in recent years establishing a strong running game. What’s your plan, given your past experience and success in this area?

It’s risk-reward. You have to stay committed to it. There’s gonna be some times where it may not appear to be successful but you gotta look at the totality of it: What is the commitment level? It’s not just the statistics on the sheet, and also what are some of the unintended benefits of things that get overlooked. 

Your play-action game may increase because of your commitment to run the football, even though your production may not be stellar on the stat sheet, your commitment to run the ball forces the defense to be honest. So even though your rush game may be down, but your commitment to being consistent and sticking with it pays dividends in other areas—your screen game can improve, your play-action shots can improve, so the other things that complement and come off of your game will be able to improve as well. 

Another big question for this team is the relative inexperience of the offensive line after losing all five starters from last season. How confident are you in that unit?

I’ve been pleasantly surprised and pleased with the rate at which they’ve improved during the spring and fall camp.

The addition of [John Paul] Flores—he’s a guy that played a lot of football at Dartmouth, so even though he’s a new starter for us, he’s started a bunch of games, so he plugs in there. [Derek] Devine has been here for a while, hasn’t played a ton, but he’s got a lot of experience just being an older guy with practice, so he won’t be overwhelmed. That’s gonna allow [Johnathan] Leech, once he comes back, he’s another guy that is a veteran, just was behind other players so we got some pieces that we feel like can generate leadership that we need up front. 

They’ve got some veteran experience from a practice standpoint, and just being around the program. They have to gain some game experience, but I feel good with having three guys that got some age to them, so to speak. Then we got Logan Taylor who is as talented as any young guy I’ve been around, he just has to develop—and he was injured in the spring—so I think we’re gonna have a good nucleus of guys, we just gotta keep them healthy and again, take the lumps of learning. But I think before it’s all said and done, they have a chance to gel together as a starting five and give us a chance to compete. 

Everyone is excited to watch UVA’s high-powered offense, but what can you tell us about the way the defense looked in camp?

The defense looks a lot different than in the spring, with the addition of the four grad transfers along the defensive line. That’s been huge, they’ve added competition. [Ben] Smiley’s really emerged and developed as a guy that’s been in the program, but hadn’t had a whole lot of production and now you’re seeing him start to emerge. [Aaron] Faumui and Jahmeer Carter, he was just a younger guy that’s really taking his nutrition seriously, he’s in the best shape he’s ever been in, so I feel like we got more depth on the D-line, which will help protect the back end. We got some guys on the back end that are coming off of injury that gotta get themselves game-ready, so they’re gonna need to be protected. I feel good about our linebacking core, I think we got some talent at the linebacking core but it’s just gonna be a function of how quickly can these guys gel as a unit, because we have some talent in spots but we gotta be able to mesh it all together so we can become a unit that can get a stop when we need to get a stop. 

Are there any standout freshmen who you expect to make an impact right away?

I think McKale Boley will do that on the offensive line. He’s been a guy that’s really showing that he loves to compete, he’s a fast learner. He came in with good size on him and good development. Still would benefit from a year in the weight room, but I think he’s physically in a position where he could contribute as a freshman. I think Houston Curry, down the road, the other offensive lineman is gonna be a really good player. Xavier Brown has done a good job, 

Terrell Jones, on the D-line, I think we hit a home run on him. I think he’s got a very high ceiling. We may not see it this year, just because of the depth that we added on the D-line with the grad transfers but I think that by the end of his career, we’re gonna look back and say “we got a steal right there.” 

I’m trying to think of the other guys. [Sean] Wilson, he’s got a big long body, more developed than Lavel [Davis Jr.] as a freshman, just physically, so I’m excited about him. I think Bracey, Steve Bracey, is gonna be a good player for us at linebacker. 

You guys have a tough stretch of games later on in the season going against Miami, UNC, and Pitt. How do you typically prepare a team for a difficult stretch like that?

It starts with the mindset that you attack fall camp with, and understand that every game is a season in itself. You have to play every game like it’s the biggest game of the season, and know that there are no easy games, there are no off games. 

You cannot play to an opponent, you cannot play to a situation. You have to respect every single game and if we can develop that mindset, then every game, all 12 games, is gonna be a tough stretch because we know that on any given Saturday, any opponent that we play is capable of coming out with the victory. 

Do you have any opinions on the current direction of college football as a whole, with the recent changes to transfer rules and conference realignments?

My general opinions are that there are good intentions from the NCAA in the direction that they’re going, trying to allow for resources to be provided to student athletes. I do have reservations, just as anybody would about how you provide those resources to young people. 

It’s great that they’re making opportunities, but I think there should be just a little bit of structure, and some consistency too. I think we’re in a stage now where it’s constantly changing, and I think all of us, in our lives, are looking for a little more structure, a little more discipline, a little more routine. 

Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of football?

Yeah, I say I like to get dirty, so I don’t mind riding side-by-sides and four-wheelers. My boys like dirt bikes. I don’t fish, I don’t hunt—I do love baseball. In the offseason, I get to spend a lot of time watching my boys play baseball. I’m a homebody, so if I’ve got a couple hours, I don’t mind just sitting on the couch and watching a good movie and getting away for a little bit. 

Are there any places in Charlottesville that you’ve taken a particular liking to?

The Local has some really good food, I’ve been there. Unfortunately, because of the way the recruiting calendar is and the way my schedule is, a lot of times when I do venture out into the city it’s because of a recruiting function, so I haven’t had a chance to visit everywhere. All I really know is 250 and 29. I know how to get to Crozet and back, and I know how to get to Stonefield and back, and that’s about it as of right now. 

It seems that student-athletes have always been placed in a separate sphere from the rest of the UVA community. To non-student-athletes, they are the basketball players, the football players, the NCAA champions—defined by their wins and losses. A project brought to the University of Virginia by three members of the women’s soccer team—Rebecca Jarrett, Lacey McCormack, and Laughlin Ryan—hopes to change that and shape a new narrative for student-athletes. 

Founded last year, UNCUT at UVA is a storytelling platform that seeks to highlight the humanity of student-athletes—beyond their jerseys and competition statistics. 

“When you’re an athlete, you’re solely known for your sport, and people identify you from your sport, and you even put pressure on yourself based on your sport,” says Philip Horton, marketing and outreach coordinator for UNCUT at UVA and a men’s soccer player. “It’s a chance for athletes to share their stories and talk about their journeys, whatever they might be.” UNCUT currently has six stories on its website surrounding mental health, identity, and injury.  

The project isn’t the only one of its kind. Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill already have their own versions of UNCUT, and the community continues to grow. 

The process for a story from start to finish takes time—it involves initially reaching out to athletes who may be interested in sharing their stories, conducting a short interview, and then engaging in an extensive writing and editing process. 

In January, Anna Sumpter—who, before entering UVA, had already had five orthopedic surgeries—detailed her substantial injuries in UNCUT’s first story. A former member of the women’s soccer team, she had a career-ending injury a year ago that led to her fourth ACL tear, resulting in a total of seven orthopedic surgeries before she turned 23.  

“Especially in college sports, it’s very easy to get consumed by your identity as an athlete above all else,” says Sumpter. “So transitioning into being a normal participant in society and finding a job and getting out of college…it was really, really difficult. But there was also so much appreciation that I had for my time as an athlete.”

Sumpter’s injury history led to her becoming a clinical research coordinator in the department of orthopedic surgery at UVA, with plans to go to medical school. Her story is an example of “finding light out of really difficult things that athletes face and turning it into something really good,” which she says is what UNCUT is all about. 

Multiple stories center around mental health, with several student-athletes discussing their journeys. The topic has become especially important with the recent uptick in suicides among college athletes—at least five NCAA athletes died by suicide this year.

Emma Bradish, a member of the women’s rowing team, shared her experience with anxiety, something she says is not discussed enough. Student-athletes, she says, are often expected to always be “at the top of our game,” but she wants athletes to know they are not alone in wanting to ask for help—and that it’s okay to do so. 

“When we fall to physical injuries, every resource that the athletic program at any university has, is thrown at helping that individual feel better,” says Bradish. “Asking for help or needing to talk to someone because your mental health isn’t where it should be…shouldn’t be thought of as any different than when you need to go in and see an athletic trainer.” 

Alexander Cruz, a men’s wrestler, opened up about his struggles with his sexuality and how it has affected his wrestling career. He wants people to know that sexuality doesn’t have anything to do with the sport a person plays, and he hopes that his story can inspire other people and help them find a sense of connection. 

“Growing up for me, I didn’t really have a role model to look up to who was a queer athlete, so I kind of went through my life and experiences just kind of on my own, and it was really hard,” says Cruz. “There’s not a lot of people who are out who are athletes, especially in wrestling, so I wanted to share my story…I would hate for somebody to feel like they had to hide a part of themselves to fit into society.”

The UNCUT team of 14 hopes to release a new story every other week. Over the summer, however, they’ll take a break, but a couple of stories will be released once the semester begins in the fall. 

“I hope that the athletes that write these stories can be relieved by sharing them, and I hope that other athletes can see that the ones that do write them are pretty brave, and that there’s value to it, and that people aren’t by themselves,” says Horton. “Athletes are bigger than the sport they play.”

By Eshaan Sarup

Ten years ago, a raging debate over the future of online courses led to the resignation—and reinstatement—of former University of Virginia president Teresa Sullivan. Now, after two years of pandemic-prompted virtual classes at UVA and schools across the country, online learning seems to be here to stay. However, the question of how an online education compares to in-person classes is still hard to answer. 

Enrollment rates at UVA suggest demand for online education is high. The UVA School of Continuing and Professional Studies, which offers a slate of degree completion programs and certificates tailored to older students looking to change careers or continue their education while still working, claims record-breaking enrollment in its online-only Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Program. 

“I really appreciated everyone’s understanding when my son was on my lap during class, or if we could get up and get something to eat,” says Carla Hallman, who graduates from the BIS program this semester and was able to complete her degree while working full time and raising her son.

Bladen Finch, who recently completed UVA’s Certificate in Public Administration Program, also needed his classes to fit around his schedule as a full-time employee for the state government.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty with my job schedule,” he says, “and so having something that afforded more flexibility with the uncertainties, constantly changing work schedules, I mean,  what could be more appealing?”

On its website, the UVA School of Continuing and Professional Studies points out that the university as a whole was ranked as the No. 1 best value public university by the Princeton Review in 2018—but it doesn’t specify accolades for the online education offerings alone. The SCPS homepage beckons potential students to “let UVA come to them” and “join the UVA family.” The FAQ section of the website says that “graduates of [UVA SCPS degree programs] are entitled to the same privileges and opportunities available to all students who have earned degrees from the University of Virginia.” An article under the news section of the website claims “employers may not realize you graduated from an online program unless you choose to bring it up in an interview.” 

But when asked if an online degree through UVA SCPS holds the same value as a traditional in-person UVA degree, Alex Hernandez, the dean of SCPS, declines to answer directly, and instead reframes the issue.

“People go to different programs for different reasons. And so each program has its own population. And the program has its own outcomes, and it has its own objectives,” Hernandez says.

He argues that pitting online vs. in-person learning isn’t a useful comparison and notes that only 30 percent of the adult population in this country has a bachelor’s degree. 

“And so if we’re going to meaningfully expand the number of people who are educated, it’s not because we’re going to keep opening traditional programs. We have lots of traditional programs across the country,” he says. “It’s because we’re gonna find new ways to innovate, to create high-quality programs that meet people where they are. And when people have successfully done that, you know, we’ve seen a lot more students get educated.”

SCPS’ objective—to increase access to a quality education and “meet people where they are”—appeals to many of the students and faculty that C-VILLE interviewed. 

Charlotte Matthews, who teaches writing to BIS students, offers high praise. 

“I just feel like this program is a real gem in a world where sometimes life happens and people don’t march to the exact same drum,” she says, describing SCPS students as “highly motivated students who are getting a second chance. They’re taking classes and they’re working full time.”

Hallman says she would “highly recommend” the BIS program to all nontraditional students looking to complete their degree.

“UVA SCPS has been a highlight through these last two years,” she says. “From day one, I felt everyone at SCPS was invested in my success.” 

Despite positive faculty and student testimonies, there is little hard data to support the program’s success. While UVA SCPS boasts three different degree programs and 12 different certifications, the official Destination Report for 2020 only has data for two degree programs—the interdisciplinary BA and the health care management BA. Moreover, only nine BIS graduates reported their salaries. 

Asked about that lack of data, Hernandez notes that a lot of information tracked by the Department of Education is for full-time students only. He says UVA, like many other universities, does not participate in gainful employment reporting although he believes that would be helpful.

“You can imagine a world where higher education institutions come together and do more research on career outcomes and employment data,” he says. “That would actually create a lot of opportunity to measure the effectiveness of professional programs across the country.”

Hernandez, who also serves as UVA’s vice provost for online learning , says that online education should be considered on a case-by-case basis. “We know [all other programs at UVA] can be offered fully online, I think the question is…for each one of our schools…what’s their vision for their programs that they’re trying to accomplish academically? Who are they trying to serve?”

Hernandez cites the example of the new UVA Nova initiative, which caters to the working adult population.

“It’s not going to be 23,000 students in Northern Virginia, going to school full time, in-person format,” he says. “And so I think that’s going to be a really great way for us to figure out…how do we run our great programs in different ways for different student populations that change lives. At the end of day, that’s what we’re trying to do.” 

When Carla Williams took charge of University of Virginia athletics in 2017, she was the only African American woman directing sports at a Power Five school.

Now, she is one of three.

But Vanderbilt’s hiring of Candice Storey Lee, and Duke’s of Nina King, is not the only way Williams has helped shape sports during her six years as UVA’s athletic director. On March 21, Williams made one of the biggest hires of her career by naming Amaka “Mox” Agugua-Hamilton head coach of UVA women’s basketball.

In 2019-20, Agugua-Hamilton set a Missouri State record for wins as a rookie coach. After leading the Lady Bears to a 73-15 record over three seasons, she will bring four assistant coaches and her FABs (family, academics, basketball) coaching philosophy to Virginia.

While Agugua-Hamilton implements her fast-paced scoring style, which she says is influenced in part by men’s basketball head coach Tony Bennett’s mover-blocker offense, Williams will continue implementation of her “Master Plan,” a $12-14 million overhaul of UVA athletic facilities.

As these two women decide the future of UVA women’s sports, here’s a glimpse at 11 of the female athletes who have shaped the university’s 2021-22 season, plus a Notre Dame transfer who’s thrilled she’s “coming home.”

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Halfway through Virginia rowing varsity four’s grand final race, where senior Hailey Barnett (1) was rowing in lane five, Duke nosed ahead in lane six.

“We knew they would try to make moves on us,” Barnett says. “So, we decided to take a move against them.”

In the final 500 meters of the race, the Cavaliers made a power 10 move, where all rowers coordinated 10 powerful, simultaneous strokes.

The crew finished with the fourth-fastest varsity four time in conference history to help Virginia win its 12th consecutive ACC rowing championship.

“We didn’t do as well as we’d hoped throughout the beginning of the season, so we were honestly a bit nervous going into it,” Barnett says. “But our motto on the team is to stay humble and hungry, so we were ready to give it our all.”

That competitive mindset is a Barnett family tradition. Barnett’s father, Fred Lee Barnett, was an NFL wide receiver from 1990 to 1997. Her mother, Jacqueline Barnett, is a dancer. Both provide guidance and support for Barnett and her twin sister and UVA roommate Myla Grace Barnett (2), a senior defender for UVA lacrosse. 

Myla Barnett recorded 10 caused turnovers in 2022, including a single game-best of three in the 2022 ACC semifinal. Growing up, she had few Black lacrosse players to look up to. Now, she is playing in this month’s nationally televised NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament.

“I know that there are a lot of younger Black lacrosse players who want to be in my shoes and want to have these opportunities,” she says. “I’ve had younger Black aspiring lacrosse players DM me on Instagram. That is something that’s super important to me, and a lot of why I keep going.”

Barnett has provided coaching clinics for young Black players, and played tournaments alongside Black college stars like Syracuse’s Emma Ward and Ohio State’s Chloë Johnson. 

Meanwhile, as part of her Citizen Leaders and Sports Ethics Community Impact Fellowship at UVA’s Contemplative Sciences Center, Barnett is planning anti-racist student-athlete education and a commemoration for Virginia’s enslaved laborers. She is also a member of Generation Now, an organization diversifying the sport of rowing.

“There is definitely a disparity in Black collegiate rowers, and Black rowers in high school, and I think it’s because of the lack of exposure that kids of color have in the sport of rowing,” Barnett says. “I’m happy to set the example for other kids of color who want to row.”

After UVA’s NCAA lacrosse bid, Barnett is preparing for the strangeness of being “more than 10 feet away” from her sister for the first time when she starts a job on Wall Street this summer.

“I’m glad that there’s still FaceTime, and things like that,” she says. “We’ll definitely be speaking to each other every day.”

This year’s Virginia men’s and women’s swim and dive ACC championships, usually held at staggered times, played out side-by-side at Georgia Tech from February 15 to 19.

That meant 15 minutes after junior Kate Douglass (3) helped the women’s team set an American record for the 200-meter freestyle relay, she was able to watch the men’s team set a record of their own.

“I think that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of,” Douglass says. “Breaking the American record myself was super exciting, but then getting to see the men do it right after, our team just went crazy. You could just tell how much we all loved and supported each other.”

The relay record wasn’t the only mark statistics major and 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Douglass made on college swimming history in 2022. 

As she helped Virginia successfully defend its NCAA title on March 16, Douglass became the first college swimmer to claim three individual titles in three different strokes by winning the 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly, and 200 breaststroke.

What’s more, she set American records in all three events.

“I just wanted to get as many points as I could for my team, and I wanted to make sure that I was having fun with my teammates and that everyone was just smiling and enjoying themselves,” Douglass says. “I think what’s really special about our team is that we don’t really do it for ourselves. We do it for each other. And that definitely helps take the pressure off yourself.”

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Whether indoor, outdoor, or at a championship, junior sprinter and jumper Jada Seaman (4) loves the 200-meter race.

“It’s so quick and just fun to me,” Seaman says. “I feel like the 200 is the perfect length, too. It’s not too short, like the 60. It’s not too long and painful, like the 400. It’s just that happy balance.”

In 2021, Seaman set the Virginia freshman record for the 200-meter with a time of 23.70.

The next year, she clocked in at 23.18 seconds—just 0.01 short of Sonja Fridy’s 1987 all-time school record.

“I really want to break 23 seconds,” Seaman says. “That’s my goal, so hopefully I’ll be able to do that.”

In addition to working toward a school record and studying business with a “Mad Men”-inspired interest in marketing, Seaman has been perfecting her long jump. 

“My strategy up to now has just been to run and just kind of hope for the best, because speed on the runway has kind of saved me,” Seaman says. “I’m not that pretty in the air, but I’m fast on the runway. I just need to be able to hone my speed and really put it all together in the end.”

Seaman put this work to the test at the ACC championships on May 12. This jump was different from the others. With the help of teammates and coaches, she had learned to enjoy the leap.

“I got sixth place, and I’ve won long jump three times now, but getting that medal means a lot to me,” Seaman says. “That was the first time I really had fun.”

After 70 scoreless minutes of soccer against defending national champion Santa Clara, Virginia was granted a free kick near the top left corner of the box.

Sophomore midfielder Lia Godfrey (5) lined herself up, thought of the team’s desire to win for recently injured senior forward Rebecca Jarrett, and curved her shot into the net.

“I work on shooting from different areas around the box, and getting it up and over the wall, because that’s kind of one of the most difficult parts of shooting a free kick…and it went up over that wall,” Godfrey says. “That was something that I’ve just been working on for so long.”

Godfrey’s goal decided one of the 15 victories, which allowed the Cavaliers to clinch the top spot in the ACC with a draw against Florida State on October 28.

“That is one of the hardest things to do, is win a regular season title, playing that many games and coming out on top,” Godfrey says. “We celebrated in the locker room. There was a lot of dancing.”

While completing the first two years of a biology degree and shadowing small animal vets in pursuit of a veterinary career, Godfrey has led Virginia in assists for two seasons.

“A lot of it has to do with connections between me and my teammates,” Godfrey says. “They make the right runs so that I’m able to play those passes. Sometimes I may not see them, but they make a good run…they’re able to read what you want, and I know what they want, so those passes are just able to connect.”

In the top of the first inning against Sacred Heart on February 19, a Virginia softball player waited in scoring position.

From the confidence with which freshman catcher and utility player Sarah Coon hit the ball to send her home, the crowd could have never guessed it was only Coon’s eighth college game.

Sacred Heart retaliated with three runs in the bottom of the frame. That blow might have felled a previous Virginia squad. Instead, Coon polished off a 9-4 comeback win in the sixth inning by cracking the first homer of her college career over the fence.

That four-RBI game helped ACC All-Freshman Coon rack up 32 RBIs in 51 games to help Virginia tie a school record with 12 conference wins.

When Virginia volleyball went down 23-21 against Bellarmine at Memorial Gym on September 18, it looked as if the Cavaliers were in danger of dropping the first set of the home tournament.

Instead, 6-foot 3-inch graduate student middle blocker Alana Walker, who joined the Hoos after racking up 741 career kills for Northwestern, led a comeback. She slammed down back-to-back blocks to clinch both the second and third sets of a 3-0 win.

Walker recorded 16 kills that day as the Cavaliers swept Georgetown and Fairleigh Dickinson to finish out a perfect 9-0 tournament. She went on to lead the ACC, rank second in the NCAA, and mark the second-best single-season blocking performance in Virginia volleyball history by averaging 1.51 blocks per set. 

With 19.5 seconds left in the third quarter of a scoreless battle with No. 6 Syracuse, junior midfielder Danielle Husar found the ball on her field hockey stick at the side of the net.

She lifted it into the goal to help No. 16 Virginia grant Syracuse its first loss in over a month.

The goal reflected the Virginia midfielder’s international career as striker for Team Canada. In April, Husar traveled to Potchefstroom, South Africa, to represent Virginia and her native Mississauga as a striker at the FIH Junior World Cup. Last year, she helped win the first Pan American gold medal in Canadian history at the Junior Pan American Cup in Santiago, Chile.

During the May 10 Ann Arbor Regional, from which four golf teams advance to the NCAA tournament, all eyes were on Virginia sophomore Jennifer Cleary after three birdies put her 3-under par halfway through the second round of play.

A bogey on the 12th hole looked like it might set Cleary back—but the Cavaliers’ leader in stroke average knew how to rally. Cleary knocked in back-to-back birdies on holes 14 and 15 to record a career-best 4-under 67.

Cleary’s score marked just the fourth time in program history a Cavalier has recorded a 67 during regional play, and helped Virginia claim an NCAA berth with the third-best team score ever recorded in a single round at Michigan’s golf course.

A storm thundered through Charlottesville as Virginia tennis hosted Oklahoma State in the NCAA Round of 16 on May 14, causing the singles tournament to move indoors halfway through as Oklahoma State claimed four of the first six sets.

But it takes more than a two-set deficit and some rain to rattle sophomore Emma Navarro (6), who dispatched her opponent in two efficient sets to help the Cavaliers advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Team Championship for the first time since 2016.

After joining Danielle Collins (2014, 2016) as the second player in program history to claim the NCAA singles title in 2021, Navarro, in 2022, was the first Virginia singles competitor to enter the NCAA singles tournament as the No. 1 seed.

In her second game as team captain of Virginia squash on November 14, senior Caroline Baldwin won her first set against fourth-ranked Columbia’s Ellie McVeigh.

McVeigh claimed the next two sets, putting Baldwin—and Virginia’s hopes of emerging with victory against their Ivy League opponent—on the ropes.

Baldwin rallied to win the final two sets, earning the difference-making point in a historic 5-4 win over the highest-ranked squash team Virginia has ever defeated. 

“I’m coming home,” Tweeted Ruckersville native Sam Brunelle on April 9, when she announced her decision to transfer from Notre Dame to Virginia.

In 2019, Brunelle emerged from William Monroe High School as one of the top basketball recruits in the United States. After leading ACC freshmen in scoring (13.9 points per game) in 2019-20, a series of injuries haven’t been enough to slow the 6-foot 2-inch Brunelle.

In Notre Dame’s November 9 season opener against Ohio, she came off the bench to drop 20 points in 17 minutes. That’s the kind of offensive explosion Agugua-Hamilton hopes Brunelle will repeat in Charlottesville.